Lhola Amira, with Khanyisile Mbongwa, was born in 1984 in Gugulethu, South Africa, and currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. Amira’s practice includes ‘Appearance’, photography, video and sculpture presented under the term ‘Constellations’. The artist Lhola Amira is an ancestral body co-existing in the body of curator and academic Khanyisile Mbongwa, therefore using the pronouns THEY/THEM in THEIR Appearances and in conversation about THEIR plural existence. Notably, Khanyisile Mbongwa was announced as the curator for the 2023 Liverpool Biennale, in Liverpool, UK, which runs from 10 June until 17 September. Lhola Amira has been awarded several residencies, namely the Artist in Residence Skövde Art Museum residency in Skövde, Sweden in 2017; the Jiwar Creation and Society Residency in Barcelona, Spain in 2015; and at Vasl Artists’ Collective in Islamabad, Pakistan in 2010.

In 2022, Lhola Amira presented THEIR first solo exhibition Facing the Future curated by Natasha Becker. THEY were the first artist to present an exhibition at the launch of the Fine Arts museum of San Francisco African Art programme. In 2020, Lhola Amira was included in NIRIN, the 22nd Sydney Biennale curated by Brook Andrews, at Cockatoo Island in Sydney, Australia; and Raupenimmersattism: The Affluent Society as Consumed Society or the Myth of Endless Production and Consumption, a group exhibition at SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin, Germany. Further notable group exhibitions include: KUBATANA, at Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium in Vestfossen, Norway; Present Passing at OSAGE Gallery in Hong Kong, China; Wall Eyes, curated by Ilaria Bernadi, at Keyes Art Mile in Johannesburg, South Africa; and Ngoma, at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), all in 2019; The Powers of Emotions Symposium at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France; the 33rd São Paulo Biennial, Affective Affinities, curated by Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro and Forward! Forward? Forward... at the Stellenbosch University Museum in Stellenbosch, South Africa, all in 2018; African Voices: Confronting Frontiers of Reality at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare, Zimbabwe; and 29o06’S 26o13’E, [Appearance], curated by Jay Pather, at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa, both in 2017.

In 2019, Lhola Amira presented DITAOLA: DIVINING BONES, curated by Mariella Franzoni as part of the Barcelona LOOP Festival City Screen Program at L&B Gallery in Barcelona, Spain; as well as Abalozi Bayeza / Os Deuses Estão Chegando, at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa; and BAYEZA naMAYEZA / De Kommer Med Medicin at the Skövde Konsthall & Konstmeséum in Skövde, Sweden. THEY have presented screenings and talks at various occasions including: the Goethe Institut in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, and the Göteborg Film Festival, both in 2018 and Part of the Labyrinth – art and history writing at the Gothenburg City Library in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2019.

Further selected solo Constellations and Appearances include: SINKING: Xa Sinqamla Unxubo at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town in 2018; LAGOM: Breaking Bread with The Self-Righteous at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town and Looking for Ghana & The Red Suitcase at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch, both in 2017.